Final course Reflection/ Feedback form

GPDE 5000A

1.      Professional Readings:

The article that impacted my learning the most throughout the course Understands by Design. I choose this article because the process was new to me, therefore all the information I know about this process, I learnt it in the course. The Background design gave me a new perspective on teaching and learning. Never in my eleven years of teaching have I stopped to think about planning for assessment before instruction. This idea shocked me at first but after reading more about the process, hearing others point of views on it, planning a lesson using the process and reflecting on it, I came to realize that it is the most innovative teaching strategy I have come across since teaching.

Teaching to achieve favourable outcomes from the assessment makes more sense to me than teaching to achieve objectives. The outcomes of the assessment will be used to determine students’ progress, not the objectives of the lesson. So therefore, it is logical that whatever we teach students should be align with the assessment items to be used in measuring their progress.

Assessment tools: Assessing students in my classroom usually takes the form of test/ quizzes and oral presentations. Having been exposed to numerous innovative ways of assessing students for understanding and application of concepts I now understand the importance of using formative assessment to collect students data and how to use these data to make informed decisions. I am also more competent in tailoring assessment strategies to fit the purpose of the assessment and students level of development and interest. Assessment tools I would implement in my class are conservation schedule, checklist, videos and blogging.

Process: I plan on implementing the gallery walk. Especially in the differentiated classroom. Students would be free to represent their work in various forms and transform the classroom to resemble a gallery. They will then present their present their work to peers. I choose to use this method in the differentiated classroom because students at all level gets to learn from all the activities that were given at various levels. I also plan on using the round table seminar to get the participation of all students and at the same time assess their level of understanding of the concepts.

Facilitator feedback.

1.      What I like the most was the warm environment that was created and the opportunity to work with experience students, Jamaica 6.

2.      What I like the least is that there were too many materials to summarize.

3.      I think you should continue putting some of the readings on audio tapes.

Florence Ricketts

The Six Facets of Understanding

Self Reflection

Reflect on each of the six facets of understanding and respond to the following and respond to the following promps:.

1.      What implications do the six facets of understanding have on your instruction?

a.      Selected instructional strategies must be tailored as much as possible to reflect the six facets of understanding.

b.      Use a range of Instructional strategies to capture different facets of understanding in lessons.

c.       The six facets must be incorporated in the intended objectives in order to highlight the behaviour (verb) to be display by students during induction. Example student should be able to: justify, say why, evaluate and critically analyse…..

d.      Content should be align to the objectives and has depth to reflect facets of understanding such as explain knowledge of processes in order to spur understanding.

2.      What implications do the six facets of understanding have on the way you assess your learners?

a.      Assessment strategies should be aligned with knowledge and skills to be testes.

b.      Various methods of assessment techniques should be used to cater for the dynamics of the 6 facets, example checklist for application and journaling for perception.

3.      What ideas do you have for applying your knowledge of the six facets of understanding in your classroom?

a.      Using varying instructional and assessment strategies to implement the 6 facets, such as easy for explanation and art piece for interpretation.

b.      Students work in groups with guided question, on a particular content area, to bring out the 6 facets of understanding.

4.      What ideas do you have for implementing the gallery walk process in your classroom?

a.      Place students in small groups and have them condense information on a particular concept and display the content in a creative way, for example using charts, models, pictures and videos. Each group will explain their work while the others become their audience.

For example, after teaching statistics student identify a problem in their community and uses the principles of statistics to collect and analyse data. Students will now display their finding on charts, videos and so on.

Determining Acceptable Evidence of Students Understanding

Self Reflection

What did I learn from this session about assessment (evidence of students learning)?

I have learnt that in order to plan effectively for assessment one has to think about what they will accept as reasonable evidence of students learning and how to measure to what extent students learn, before planning for instruction. Mctighe and Wiggins (2004) ,cited various methods that can be used to collect data about students’ performance. These include informal checks for understanding such as using questioning, observation, quizzes/test, and conferencing and performance task such as projects. I have also learnt that any assessment methods used must reflect the objectives in the curriculum. Assessment used should cater to the three types of curriculum. Assessments should be varied to capture students’ differences in learning styles and interest.

What ideas do I have for changing the ways I assess for understanding?(graded or non-graded).What will I use?

With added knowledge and ongoing reflections on various assessment methods and their effectiveness, I am now better able to effectively use various assessment methods and tailor each to fit students’ level of cognitive development and their interest. I am also going to make conscious efforts to ensure that assessment strategies I used will cater to varying learning styles and capture students’ interest as oppose to the quizzes i normally used.  I will also strive to use a balance of both formative and summative assessment to gather information prior to and during instruction. I will now practice using the information generated from students to guide further instructions. In order to gather more information on students’ reaction to the background design process I plan to carry out an experiment to see to what extent this technique can improve learning when compared to the traditional way of planning.

How can you make these manageable?

Before students are given task they will be sensitized as to what is expected from them while performing the tasks. I will also walk students through the rubric that they will be assess against so they have an idea of the quality work that is expected from them and work to meet the criteria. I will also exercise the use of differentiated instruction in the form of preparing task with varying complexity level for students to work their way up blooms taxonomy.

Chapter 3

Assessment of Learning, for Learning and as Learning.

1.      Assessment of learning

Earl (2003), describes assessment of learning a being summative in nature and speaks to it being the most popular means by which students performance are measured. The purpose of assessment of learning is to gather data or information on student’s performance. This data is then used position students, based on their performance, report to parents and make decisions about placements and promotion on students. This type of assessment normally occurs at the end of a series of work and normally takes the form of a test. The limitations of such assessment technique are that it is too teacher oriented, the grades are often not valid as one test often does not capture all the knowledge gained during the series of lessons. Grades collected does not give indication of mastery and non-mastery of concepts and cannot be used to draw conclusion about students’ progress during instruction.

2.      Assessment for learning.

Earl (2003), describe assessment for learning as formative in nature and accommodate timely and continuous feedback about students learning, which later guides further classroom instructions. Students actively engage in the learning process and the teacher acts as facilitator. The purpose for assessment for learning approach is for teacher to get background information on students’ experiences/ prior knowledge, detect students thought process, understanding and misunderstanding of concepts during the lesson. It also allows teachers to give timely feedback to students and make adjustments to lessons as they see fit. Assessment for learning occurs when data is collected from students through observation, checklist, and worksheets and so on to inform teaching strategies and support students’ growth. This is normally done prior to or during lessons.

3.      Assessment as learning.

Earl (2003), describe assessment as learning as an ongoing process where students takes responsibilities for their learning. They are responsible to carry out the activities, monitor their progress, assess their performance, and make decisions about their learning based on their findings.

4.      Figure 3.1 most emphasis is placed on assessment of learning, which is a summative form of assessment. Given its nature students are put under pressure to ‘swat’ large volume of information at any given one time that has little or no meaning to them. Teachers, of course, will experience difficulties in adequately preparing test which can measure the extent to which students learn all the content taught.

Figure 3.2 shows assessment as learning as being the preferred technique. This pose a challenge to facilitators as they themselves has not yet reach this stage of development and so will find it difficult to model or scaffold the behaviour they intent for their students to model and will therefore find it difficult to assess students likewise. Students will be hindered from the benefits of assessment as learning technique as teachers are often reluctant to seek help.

5.         Students benefit most from engaging in the assessment as learning technique.  I need to adopt this technique so that my students can benefit from enduring understanding and the ability to transfer knowledge.

6.        Being exposed to other techniques of formative assessment as changed my thinking on the way I assess students. The benefits, to students, of formative assessment far surpass that of summative assessment which I often used to measure students’ knowledge. Therefore it is with this new thinking that I saw the need to re-examine my current assessment practices.

7.      The role of the learner is critical in the learning process. For meaningful learning to take place the learner must be actively involved in instruction and assessment process. They must be made able to monitor and assess their learning and subsequent performance and use the findings to guide and improve farther learning.

8.      As an educator I now see the need to move away from written test as my main method of assessing students’ knowledge and tap in on the benefits of assessment for and as learning. I also need to create a comfortable and motivating learning environment for students to formulate their own learning experiences where they feel compelled to express themselves and share experiences that will contribute to informed discussions. I also plan to trust students to take charge of their learning and to think out of the box while engaging in esquires. 

Round Table Discussion
Assessment
Self Reflection.

Participating in the round table discussions was an enlightening experience. I had the opportunity of gaining knew insights into assessment techniques, correcting misconceptions and build on old ideas. While participating in the discussions I was introduced to three approaches to assessment. Assessment of learning, which is summative in nature and assessment for learning and assessment as learning which are formative in nature.

Formative assessment gives more details and insights into the extent to which students understand or misunderstand the principles thought. It also informs both facilitators and the learners as to what decisions need to be made to facilitate further learning and address misunderstanding.  I also learnt that assessment as learning promotes critical thinkers, self-directed and reflective learners and self-assessors, as they are given the opportunity to be actively engaged in the teaching and learning process and to make decisions about their learning.

After being exposed to the various findings on assessment,  it is only fitting for me to want to tailor my existing ways of assessing students to include more innovative ways and to adopt new ways of thinking that are applicable in my classroom setting. I saw the need to create a comfortable and motivating environment for students to work. This will encourage them to participate freely in lessons, use their experienced to facilitate rich classroom discussions and take the initiative to assist others. I also intend to utilize assessment for learning and assessment as learning to a greater extent in future learning experiences and expose students to rubric so they too can take part in their own assessment and make informed decisions about their learning. I will also use data gathered from these assessments to guide further learning

Final Reflection.

 The bulk of information I got the opportunity to interact has reshaped my thoughts on educational instructions, mode of deliveries and assessment strategies. I gain new insights into how to plan for meaningful learning, critical thinking, and other higher order skills. One of my goals outlined in reflection one, state that I hope to gain the necessary knowledge and skills needed for me to be a better facilitator of learning. I could not ask for more. The knowledge and skills I gained far surpass my expectations of the program.  I consider myself fortunate to be a part of such an enriched experience.

 The knowledge gained from participating in the Med. programme not only better curbed my pedagogical skills but took me out of the realm of the classroom to assess myself as an individual. The Gregorc  Style Delineator self-assessment test, label my learning style as being  Abstract Sequential (AS) which reflect s not only my learning preference but also character traits I never realized I had until after I took some time to reflect.  The result of the test allows me to identify who I am as a learner. These finding make me realize that not all students will have the same character traits or learning styles and so lessons must be planned and tailored with student’s difference in mind.   

Thanks SMU! My stuttering on questions such as “why do I need to learn this topic” is over. Having been exposed to innovative and creative instructional methods such as Service learning and Project base learning as equipped me with the solution to that problem. Working collaboratively in groups and learning from others have made the learning experience diverse, rich with information and applicable. Students were able to incorporate their own experiences into class discussions which highlight the usability, strength and weaknesses of the strategies that were scrutinized and their relevancy in various classroom settings. Another of my goal is to gain the expertise if constructing learning program to make mathematics more meaning full to students. I think by the end of the Med. Programme of work I will be able to achieve that. The learning experience would not have been so productive without the guidance of a dynamic, knowledgeable and well informed Facilitator, Dr. Larsen. The strategies she modeled in order to give use a wonderful experience reflect hard work, proper timing, patience, flexibility and passion.

Reflection 4.

This is day 4 and the classes continue to be informative, interesting and stimulating. I learnt about the differentiation technique of teaching. The misconceptions I had about the differentiation technique has been addressed through discussions with group members. In initially thought that the differentiation technique is when you cater for students learning styles by exposing them to various activities during a lessons. According to Hall et al.,(2009) differentiation technique of teaching is an approach to teaching and learning that gives students multiple options for taking in information and making sense of it.

According to Earl (2003), differentiated classroom lessons should be geared towards students’ readiness, interest and mode of learning. These characteristics of differentiation strategies are suitable to meet the instructional need of students. If lessons are not prepared to reflect students’ readiness they may become flustered and demotivated. Therefore, even in a class of mixed abilities, it’s the teachers’ responsibility to plan, tailor and create learning experience to cater for each student level of readiness. The differentiation technique is the perfect tool to cater to readiness of students in heterogeneous grouping.

The Idea of Tiered assignment was one of the differentiation techniques that were introduced to us. This technique requires teachers to implement varied level of activities to ensure that students explore ideas at a level that respect their readiness. In this way students will build on prior knowledge and continue to grow. This technique is applicable in mathematics, where the faster students could be given task that takes in logical reasoning an independent thinking and the slow once given simpler task to further develop logical reasoning and independent thinking. Other differentiation techniques that would be effective in teaching mathematics are RAFT and MENU  .The key component of differentiation techniques is that all level of activities should reflect the same set of learning objectives.

Of course as humans, it is very hard to engage in a task that does not interest you. Therefore if lessons are planned with students’ interest and mode of learning in mind students will be willing to learn and find learning fun and interesting and later develop a passion for it. Therefore, when thinking about using the differentiation technique students interest and mode of learning must be considered. Having met all these criteria students will gradually develop higher order thinking skills, social skills and experience personal growth.